ready

From English ready, from the English-language sequence on your marks, ready, set, go, of which only ready is used translingually.

ready

1. (sports) The command to make ready, regardless of language of competitors, used in multiple sports to get contestants to their marks in preparation to start.

From Middle English redy, redi, rædiȝ, iredi, ȝerǣdi, alteration ( +‎ -y) of earlier irēd, irede, ȝerād (“ready, prepared”), from Old English rǣde, ġerǣde (also ġerȳde) ("prepared, prompt, ready, ready for riding (horse), mounted (on a horse), skilled, simple, easy"), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaz, *raidijaz, from base *raidaz (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂reh₁dʰ-, *h₂reh₁- (“to count, put in order, arrange, make comfortable”) and also probably conflated with Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride”) in the sense of "set to ride, able or fit to go, ready". Cognate with Scots readie, reddy (“ready, prepared”), West Frisian ree (“ready”), Dutch gereed (“ready”), German bereit (“ready”), Danish rede (“ready”), Swedish redo (“ready, fit, prepared”), Norwegian reiug (“ready, prepared”), Icelandic greiður (“easy, light”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “arranged, ordered”).

• enPR: rĕd'i, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛd.i/

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• Homophone: reddy
• Hyphenation: read‧y
• Rhymes: -ɛdi

ready (comparative readier, superlative readiest)

1. Prepared for immediate action or use.

   The troops are ready for battle.

   The porridge is ready to serve.

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 87:

     If need be, I am ready to forego / And quit:

   • 1711, Jonathan Swift, journal to Stella:

     she was told dinner was ready

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:

     Miranda: I'll admit it, Shepard. I'm impressed. You got us here. Are you ready?
     Shepard: We're going in blind, and we don't even know if we'll survive the trip. No way in hell we're ready... but we don't have a choice.

2. Inclined; apt to happen.
3. Liable at any moment.

   The seed is ready to sprout.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     My heart is ready to crack.

4. Not slow or hesitating; quick in action or perception of any kind.

   Synonyms: dexterous, prompt, easy, expert

   a ready apprehension

   ready wit

   a ready writer or workman

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     whose temper was ready, though surly

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 13, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     ready in devising expedients

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], “The First Gun”, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 16:

     Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.

   • 1895, Rudyard Kipling, “The King’s Ankus”, in The Second Jungle Book, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 188:

     "Apple of Death" is what the Jungle call thorn-apple or dhatura, the readiest poison in all India.

   • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     The [Washington] Post's proprietor through those turbulent [Watergate] days, Katharine Graham, held a double place in Washington’s hierarchy: at once regal Georgetown hostess and scrappy newshound, ready to hold the establishment to account.

5. Offering itself at once; at hand; opportune; convenient.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 1097:

     Through the wilde Deſert, not the readieſt way,

   • 1700, John Dryden, Theodore and Honoria:

     A sapling pine he wrenched from out the ground, / The readiest weapon that his fury found.

• good to go

• unready

ready (third-person singular simple present readies, present participle readying, simple past and past participle readied)

1. (transitive) To prepare; to make ready for action.

• yark

ready (countable and uncountable, plural readies)

1. (slang) Ready money; cash.
   • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “A Copy of Bull and Frog’s Letter to Lord Strutt”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 8:

     [H]e vvas not fluſh in Ready, either to go to Lavv or clear old Debts, neither could he find good Bail: […]

   • 2008, Agnes Owens, The Group:

     […] he was generous when he had the cash. Many a time he kept me going in drink through the week when I was stuck for the ready […]

• already

• Yarde, dayer, deary, deray, rayed, yeard